Discussion

New Restaurant - Henry btw Carroll and 1st

I noticed that a new place opened shop late last week on Henry Street between Carroll and 1st Place. Popped my head in on Friday night to check it out. At the moment, all they are doing are brick oven pizza's (plain only) and calzones as they are in "soft launch" stage. Decided to grab a pie to go.

The setup is very open. A large wooden table separates the dining area from the kitchen. This table is serving as their assembly area for the pies and calzones. It felt old world, in a good way.

It was explained to me that each pie has three different cheeses, pizza and fresh mozzarella as a base finished with a healthy dusting of grana once it’s pulled from the oven. More on this later.

Part of the decoration on the table was a unopened large glass jar of quality anchovies. While they said no toppings, I begged that they crack that jar open and lay some of those tasty babies on. After a moment of hesitation, the pizza chef agreed and we decided that the best way would be to add them once the pie was pulled so as to avoid burning. They took my cell # and promised to call in 30 minutes.

Call they did, right on time. I was pleasantly surprised given the place was 3/4 full and we all know how restaurants fair early in their lives in service. As I walked home with the pie, the aroma was great, boding well for our meal. Cracked the box once home and saw a thin crusted pie that looked great. Flavor was excellent, sauce tasty and the cheese combination excellent. There was a nice meatiness imparted by that "pizza cheese", brightened by the fresh mozzarella. The grana added a nice sharp and salty bite. The anchovies were excellent.

My only complain was the center of the pie was a touch underdone (read soggy), but I imagine they will work out this kink.

Cost for the pie was a bit above market ($20 with the anchovies), but the pizza was very tasty and is something I will have again.

Not that you're incorrect of course... I have no problem going to Savoia regularly and DiFara's almost as regularly. However, I do bemoan the closing of Cristardi's a # of years ago and this place may, hopefully, replace it.

first of all, it's really a pizzeria, not an italian restaurant, and the pizza is excellent. the crust is the perfect combo of chew and char, the ingredients first rate, and if occasionally a pie is jsut slightly soggy in the middle, well, that's in the neopolitan tradition as half of the many pizzas i have had at famous places in naples were soggy in the middle as well.

There is no comparing this to savoia. Savoia is more in the roman style, (tho imho not as good as true roman pizza) and this is definitely more neopolitan/new york.

and yes, difara's is an influence. I asked. It's different from dom's, but still very good, a lot closer to my house, and without the long lines ( or at least not yet)

the pizza is better than leonardo's was, but i sure do miss that garden!

this is not "some new" place, but the numbers shop run by Carmela's (nephew). aka Formerly the only soda fountain left in Bklyn with real egg creams. the guys are LOCAL. (like, around the corner). Yep, we DO need this. Nino's pizzas are much soggier now. And at least its not some horrible nouveau cooking school interloper funded by daddy like Crave, or another stupid bistro like the french ones that bought all the laundromats on Henry (with their "spin" turntables and their stupid wine lists), or that digusting Naidres with the hipsters slurping chai lattes and writing their "novels" all day or the dead lettuce bagel pit across from Mazzolos or the crevette snob place spawned by boullabaise that kicked out the Moroccan takeout from Columbia St (she's gone up to Lincoln in PkSlope, cheaper rent now) -- be grateful there's something left of brooklyn after all the slacker media publicists get through ruining the neighborhood. Or maybe they will all move back to Minneapolis or Ohio or Virginia or Jersey or whereever they slunk in from and we can have brookyn back. And our pies.

Okay, digression here, but this has been niggling with me ever since October. "Hipster" is not a general term that can be applied to all young people. There are almost no hipsters in this neighborhood. And NO self-respecting hipster would be caught dead at Naidre's, with its lame playlist, crunchy-granola vibe, and legions of strollers. This is a term that's tossed around a lot on CH, and often innappropriately. I will happily buy you a Single Ride on the G train to Bedford so you can see the genuine article in all its absurdity - anything in the cause of linguistic accuracy!

Well if we are trying to correctly define the term here for our purposes in NYC. If you take the G train to Williamsburg you will find what they now call Baby'burg. It seems this inclusive hipster gang are not a bunch of baby haters. And yes we do have a share of them in CH and in CG and no not at Naidre's. To their great reflief when they moved into this hood they didnt drop dead. Also no self respecting NYer has worn a trucker hat in 2 years. We moved here from NJ and we aren't going anywhere - seems too many people from Brooklyn kept moving into our hoods there and took up too much room. Now back to the food which is what this is about - Lucali's is for anyone with good taste regardless of what you look like - taste buds come with us all.